Shutting down government over the border wall

Workers continue installing an 18-foot steel border fence between Sunland Park, N.M. and the Anapra area of Juarez, Mexico. A white international boundary marker can be seen at the top of the hill. (Photo: RUDY GUTIERREZ / EL PASO TIMES)Buy Photo

Due in large part to his own inexperience and ineptitude, Trump is seven months into his term without a single major legislative achievement. This failure is even more remarkable considering his Republican Party controls the White House and both houses of Congress.

This is clearly draining the man who views himself as the ultimate deal maker.

Trump sees leverage because the government's funding will run out in September if Congress doesn't pass another budget extension. As with most everything in his presidency, he is likely overplaying his hand.

Because of Senate rules, any budget continuation resolution will require support from Democrats. At his campaign rally, Trump seemed to dare Democrats to block funding for the wall.

“Now, the obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it. But believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” he said.

“If the president pursues this path, against the wishes of both Republicans and Democrats, as well as the majority of the American people, he will be heading towards a government shutdown which nobody will like and which won’t accomplish anything,” Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York said.

A poll in April, after Trump made similar noise about a government shutdown, found that almost two-thirds of voters agreed that funding a Mexican border wall was "not important enough to prompt a shutdown."